Tesla Supercharger rival revealed! China’s XPeng announces its own DC charging network for Australia
XPeng says it will roll out its very own network of fast DC chargers Down Under that are almost twice as powerful as existing Tesla Superchargers.
Exact locations have yet to be confirmed but XPeng announced its intention to challenge the Tesla Supercharger network at a recent global brand night in Hong Kong where the EV-maker declared chargers sporting its own-branding will help raise its profile.
The big benefit of XPeng chargers is they can charge at a rate of up to 480kW.
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That’s well beyond beyond Tesla’s existing charging network in Australia that can only top up cars at up to 250kW.
But it’s fractionally below the 500kW rate of Tesla’s next-gen V4 Supercharger that’s on the way.
XPeng, which is five per cent owned by Volkswagen, announced at the beginning of this year that it and VW China would team-up to roll out charging infrastructure in an incredible 420 cities.
Already experienced in chargers, XPeng operates more than 2000 fast-charging stations. But the new deal will see it more than double the number of XPeng chargers to around 20,000 in the coming months.
Despite the high-output XPeng’s chargers, the current mid-size G6 SUV can only be topped up at rate of 280kW, although a 10-80 per cent top-up still takes less than 20 minutes at that rate.
There’s no word on how many XPeng chargers it plans to introduce Down Under, nor what will be its strategy when it comes to placement.
EV Central has reached out to local XPeng distributor TrueEV to confirm the charger plan. XPeng and TrueEV only launched the brand in Australia last December.
We’ll update this story when we learn more.
Currently Tesla has around 100 chargers in Australia, mostly based on or near highways on the east coast.
The arrival of the new chargers will help bolster XPeng’s big expansion in models. On the way soon are the larger G9 SUV and its X9 people mover. The G7 medium SUV is also in the mix.
They are set to land ahead of the compact M03 Tesla Model 3-fighter and the larger P7+ family sedan that are both set to arrive in 2026.
More chargers is always good news but I feel there’s already a lot of fast chargers around. We need way more 22kW chargers for incidental charging. Every major supermarket, big box retailer with a carpark etc. should have multiple AC chargers so that every time you’re out and about you can top up at a reasonable price.
A DC charger is no use to me if the car is finished charging in 10 minutes while I’m in the shop for 30-40. Similarly, the 7kW AC that are around are too slow to add any real distance in the 30-40 minutes I’m shopping. 20-22kW is the sweet spot.